Books I Recommend

Can you believe it’s the 16th of July! I’ve had a smoothie every single day of this month, sometimes even two a day. I thought by now I’d be a little tired of smoothies and protein shakes, but I’m not.

I keep changing things up and trying new recipes and of course, I keep inspired by all the goodness that you guys keep sending in every day of the challenge.

My friend, ShannonMarie of Rawdorable, keeps sending in the most adorable photos – I just HAVE to share them with you. There’s no end to the cuteness.

Some of you have been making some super fun collages too – I love the creativity! There’s been lots of sharing of recipes on Twitter and Instagram with the challenge participants – so I’ve discovered lots of delicious recipes/sites.

Speaking of new recipes, I was chatting with my cousin the other day and we were talking about protein shakes. He mentioned one of his favourite shakes was his dark chocolate shake. Of course, you know that if chocolate is involved, I get very excited. Obviously I asked him to share his recipe.

Once I tried it I knew I had to share it with you (with permission). Seriously, it’s like a liquid version of a dark chocolate bar. I’m a fan.

(I love cocoa!)

He does include an organic, raw egg in this recipe – so as a disclaimer (as I’m no expert about these sorts of things) use it at your own risk. If you’re pregnant, have a weak immune system, or are younger than 3 years of age (most of my readers are probably under 3) don’t use it. You can also use pasteurized egg whites instead – or if you’re not a fan of the idea, no worries, simply skip it! It was added to the shake to add even more protein and healthy fats. I had never added a whole raw egg to a shake before and I actually enjoyed it (surprise, surprise!). However, I made sure the egg was organic. This serves 1-2.

Dark Chocolate Protein Shake

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 scoop protein powder (chocolate or vanilla)

1 raw organic egg (opt)

3 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder (2 if you are using chocolate protein powder)

2 tablespoon stevia/Truvia (or your choice of low calorie sweetener)

7-10 ice cubes

Whirl everything up in your high-speed blender. Depending on how sweet you like it, you might want to add a little more or less sweetener.

This recipe has 42-52 grams of protein (depending on what brand of protein powder you are using) and around 350-400 calories (again, depending on what brand of protein powder). Serves 1-2 people.

This weekend we did some traveling with our music, so to keep up with my smoothie challenge I brought along my Vega Energizing Smoothie and my blender bottle. Nothing easier. Just shake and go! (I also added some ground flaxseed and pysillium husks to the mix)

Thanks so much for featuring my photos again. I am beyond flattered. My internet has been acting up with all the heat (it is almost guaranteed to go out every time the weather is in the high 90s or breaks 100). I’m amazed I even got that tweet sent today. I guess God was on my side. Gotta love Him :-)

I’ve had eggs in smoothies when I was younger. It actually was a big health craze years ago. Some people would actually just drink them straight. C-razy!

I don’t do eggs or cottage cheese these days, so I’m trying to come up with some alternatives to your most recent smoothies. I really want to make the lemon meringue one. Maybe I’ll use coconut yogurt, nutmilk cheese, lemon and some vanilla protein powder like Sunwarrior Blend.

Sounds like no dancing for me today…I am ready for a real work out! This shake is empowering me to the highest level. Thanks!
Myfudo here…Normally we’d never put a shameless plug back to us, but we just launched our new site and we would love for you to be a part of it. I’d love to share our newest launch with you, I hope you don’t mind? Now that we are getting a new look…Myfudo is moving to a new domain http://www.yumgoggle.com This has been a project we have been working on for almost a year now. We just launched our new gallery submission site, and we are just thrilled. We’d be proud to have your work as part of our growing collection to continue to have a larger reach and further inspire all fellow food lovers out there! Please sign up and check us out (it’s free) http://www.yumgoggle.com/gallery
We look forward to seeing your wonderful pictures, as always.
p.s. We are hosting a Kitchen Aid Mixer Giveaway to celebrate our new Yumgoggle site, we hope you’ll participate =)http://www.yumgoggle.com/japanese-cuisine-japanese-spinach-side-dish-horenso-no-ohitashi-kitchenaid-mixer-giveaway/